February Manicures!

Apologies for the delay in this post! Evidently instead of publishing it, I just saved it as a draft...twelve days ago. At any rate, if you'd like to see the manicures I did throughout February, keep reading!

OPI Euro Centrale Comparison - Blue

This week I'm going to compare the polishes from the OPI Euro Centrale mini set to the other polishes in my collection.

Today's comparison is with the blue from the set - Can't Find My Czechbook. I was not expecting to love this polish as much as I do! I also wasn't expecting it to be so different from my other polishes. I thought I had a decent amount of blue polishes but it seems they're all either much more teal, more purple, or just darker than this particular shade. Hopefully I don't end up wishing I had a big bottle of this one! Although surely I can find a similar shade if I ever use up the mini bottle. 

L-R: China Glaze - For Audrey, OPI - Can't Find My Czechbook, Sally Hansen Insta Dri - Blue-Away

OPI Euro Centrale Comparison - Pink

This week I'm going to compare the polishes from the OPI Euro Centrale mini set to the other polishes in my collection. 

First up: the pink! The slightly coral-leaning pink of Suzi's Hungary AGAIN! is not particularly unique to my collection as I find that type of shade to be particularly flattering against my skin tone. While none of these polishes are exactly the same, the OPI, Revlon, and Urban Outfitters colors are similar enough that you certainly would not need more than one of them in your collection. The China Glaze is more of a true pink than the others, although it is certainly not too far off.

L-R: Urban Outfitters - Cocktail, Revlon Top Speed - Guava, OPI - Suzi's Hungary AGAIN!, China Glaze - Sugar High

December Manicures

I can't believe how quickly December went - but it's already time for another monthly manicure wrap-up!

Working two retail jobs over the Christmas season was extremely busy, so my nails stayed the same for longer than usual, and there were a few that I neglected to photograph. The week prior to Christmas, I also did silver nails and then added on little red and green Christmas lights on a string on each nail - it was super fun and easy! I just used a dotting tool for the red and green lights and a black striping polish for the cord that connected them. I'm sad I didn't get photos of it, but I could post photos of the trial run I did on my nail wheel if anyone would like to see! For Christmas day, I just red and green on alternating nails.

Now that shopping has calmed down a bit, I should have more time to make January's manicures more interesting! Especially since I've added some polishes to my collection over the past month that haven't gotten a chance to get used yet!

For larger photos of each manicure and the polishes used, keep reading!

Nail Polish Comparison - butter LONDON Wallis

L-R: Safari Gold over Stone Cold, Safari Gold, Wallis, Zombie Zest over Stone Cold

For more photos and detailed information and comparisons, keep reading!

Nail Polish Comparison - Medium Pinks

This is the final post of pink polish comparisons! (For now at least!) 

L-R: China Glaze - Strawberry Fields, Covergirl - Fuchsia Girl, SXY (Payless) - Pink  Prestige

The Covergirl is a long-time favorite of mine - I've had a bottle of it for YEARS, and this is actually the second bottle! I had another one that I probably used about half of before the cap split and the polish dried out completely! It's a very opaque and easy to apply color.

Although I haven't had Strawberry Fields as long, it's definitely one of my favorites as well. It's so beautiful, especially in the sun. Although its base color is similar to the other pinks, the gold shimmer in it really makes it quite different. It's one polish I'd recommend everyone have in their collection - at the very least for summer pedicures!

Nail Polish Comparison - Neon Pinks

This group is definitely the least color-accurate of all the pinks! Neons are notoriously hard to get photographed correctly, and these are no exception. 

L-R: China Glaze - Light My Tiki, L.A. Colors (no name), China Glaze - Shocking Pink (Neon), Essie - Lights

Light My Tiki is the least "neon" of the bunch. It has glitter and dries to a shiny finish. It's very bright though! The L.A. Colors shade and Shocking Pink are both true matte/slight satin neons. The L.A. Colors one in particular is really opaque and even for a neon polish. The Essie dries to more of a satin than a matte finish, and isn't quite as in-your-face vibrant as the others, although it is still very, very bright. It also applies really beautifully. 

Nail Polish Comparison - Pale Pinks

Today's installment of pink nail polish comparisons features the pale/pastel pinks of my collection!

L-R: Revlon Colorstay - Cafe Pink, OPI - Pink Friday, China Glaze - Something Sweet, Revlon - Flirt

Cafe Pink and Pink Friday are very similar. I haven't actually worn a full manicure of either yet, so I can't say how they wear yet! Flirt is definitely the thinnest formula, but it's not actually that sheer! It is also the most purple of the four, but it fit into this bunch the best.

Nail Polish Comparison - Light/Medium Pinks

I was enjoying picking out similar-looking polishes and taking comparison photos, so I did quite a few over the same weekend. The ones I'll be posting first are all the pinks I compared, since the color seems to be everywhere for breast cancer awareness currently! 

China Glaze's 'Naked' polish is one that was included in a set with Seche Vite topcoat and a little keychain. I believe 5% of the set's sales went to Susan G. Komen for the cure, which is a nice bonus. I just liked the pink and can always use another bottle of Seche Vite! Especially for $7.99 for the set!

L-R: Pixi - Pirouette Pink, Revlon Top Speed - Candy, China Glaze - Naked, China Glaze - Sugar High

China Glaze Sugar High is one of my favorite pink polishes of all time. Candy is a nice color, but I don't particularly enjoy the Top Speed formula - they seem to be tacky and actually dry slower than the regular Revlon polishes!

The Pixi polish is much brighter than it appears here, and I'm not sure if you're able to see it but there is a little bit of glitter/shimmer to it as well! It's interesting - like a neon pastel pink!

Nail Polish Comparison - Yellow-Greens

L-R (in all photos) : China Glaze Electric Pineapple, OPI Did It On 'Em, Sinful Colors Innocent

Once again, none of these are dupes for each other, but they're all very similar. Innocent is more green whereas the others have more yellow to them, and the OPI is a bit more vibrant, although certainly a very similar shade, to the China Glaze.

The Sinful Colors is a bit more opaque in one coat than the other two, but none of them take many coats to get even and opaque coverage. They're all a pretty nice formula to work with as well. I love fun, bright colors like these and would definitely recommend having one of them in your collection! They're great as accent nails or in nail art if you're not sure about wearing an entire manicure with a color like these, too.

September Manicures

These are becoming my favorite posts to put together! It's fun to see all the colors I used throughout the month. I was definitely in fall mode this month! Although For Audrey is always a favorite & I suspect it'll make an appearance most months.

1. Butter London Aston
2. Essie Your Hut Or Mine
3. Finger Paints Go Van Gogh!, OPI Swimsuit...Nailed it!
4. Sonia Kashuk Two Cent
5. Butter London Wallis
6. China Glaze For Audrey
7. Zoya Shawn, China Glaze Zombie Zest
8. Sally Hansen Insta Dri Whirlwind White, Wet n Wild Through the Grapevine, Revlon Impulsive
9. Butter London The Old Bill
10. L'Oreal Spice Things Up
11. Zoya Caitlin
12. Wet n Wild Wet Cement, OPI The World Is Not Enough
13. China Glaze For Audrey, Milani HD, Milani Gems, Essie Set in Stones, China Glaze Fairy Dust (I did a more specific post on just this manicure here.)

Tiffany-Inspired Manicure

One of my favorite manicures I did this month was created in response to a photo posted in a Facebook group I participate in. I searched and found the source for the photo, this blog. After seeing the image, I knew I needed to create my own version, but wanted to do it a little differently!

The polishes I used. L-R: Rimmel Base Coat, China Glaze For Audrey, Milani HD, Essie Set in Stones, Milani Gems, China Glaze Fairy Dust, and Seche Vite.

I started with the base color, and then did just the tips with Milani HD, a holographic silver polilsh. I then went over all but the accent nail with Essie Set in Stones, extending it a bit further down the nail than the HD. The accent nail I treated exactly the same except using Gems, to add a pop of rainbow! I then topped all the nails with Fairy Dust, a sparse holographic glitter, extending it even a bit further. I really was pleased with how it ended up! Plus, as another participant on the page suggested, this mani could easily last quite awhile as chips or tip wear could easily be masked with more glitter! 

L'Oreal Brit Invasion - Nail Polish Comparison

After seeing several people discussing how pretty L'Oreal's Brit Invasion nail polish was, I picked it up at Target yesterday without giving it too much thought. It looked gorgeous! However, after getting it home and swatching it on a nail wheel, I realized it didn't seem that unique to my collection after all. 

On the left is China Glaze White Cap layered on top of China Glaze Ingrid. Brit Invasion is in the center, and China Glaze Ingrid on its own is on the right.

While I certainly wouldn't call Ingrid - with or without White Cap - a dupe for Brit Invasion, for me it was close enough that I didn't feel I needed both. Although it is a gorgeous shade, the more browny, neutral shades in my collection are probably among those I reach for least often, and having such similar shades didn't seem worth it.

If you don't have Ingrid or other similar shades, I do think this would make a nice addition to your collection. It applied really nicely - two coats was completely opaque, and it wasn't at all tricky to get an even coverage. There really is a lot of shimmer, but as it's very fine it doesn't appear glittery or too shiny.

Favorite Fall Nail Polish!

If you thought I was excited about making the fall lipsticks post...that was nothing! This one I'm really excited about! Nail polish is my first love in the makeup & beauty world.

Quite a few of these shades I've either never worn or haven't worn much, since I got them in between this fall and last fall and they didn't seem appropriate in the summer! Others are favorites. A few were limited edition, so I apologize if you see one you love and then can't find it! But I wanted to show the ones that truly are my favorites.

I tried to keep it to the number of polishes that I could swatch around one nail wheel and I was successful - although I ultimately decided to show the polishes on my actual nails instead of on a wheel. To see the swatches and specific names, keep reading!

Current Manicure - For Audrey

When I sat down to paint my nails last night, I wasn't feeling particularly inspired to do any certain color or nail art, so I gravitated towards one of my all-time favorite polishes - China Glaze For Audrey! 

This time, I used the Revlon Colorstay basecoat and Seche Vite topcoat. I was originally planning to try another topcoat again, but then I had to go do something pretty quickly after I painted them, so I figured I'd better stick with a fast-dry I can trust.

In case you're curious, I also painted my toenails! I'll refrain from posting a picture of them, but they're currently Covergirl Boundless Color in Fuchsia Girl. This polish is an old favorite of mine - I've had a bottle of it for YEARS! This is actually a replacement bottle because the cap broke on the first one and it dried up. 

I think both of these colors look nice with my skin tone and they're kind of "medium" colors - they're not dark, pale, or neon, but they're still fun and colorful! I feel like this time of year is kind of in between summer and fall. School's in session but it's still fairly warm outside. I'm not one to get particularly hung up on what colors are "seasonally appropriate" since I like to wear bright colors year round, but I do tend to save the darker and more neutral colors for the fall and winter.

What are your favorite colors you reach for when you're not inspired to do something in particular?

Nail Polish Collection - Bottle Photos

I recently took on the project of arranging my polishes by color and swatching them in a small notebook I can easily take with me to ensure new polishes I see in stores are actually unique to my collection, as it's getting to the point where it's easy to have repeats. As a way of cataloging which polishes made which swatch, I took photos of them in the same order I swatched them. I didn't photograph the two Konad polishes or any of my base/topcoats, but this is everything else. As always, click the photos if you want to see them larger, and ask me if you have any more specific questions! 

Photos under the jump since there are six of them and I don't want it to load too slowly!

Red, White, and Blue Nail Polishes

Before I get into the manicure I did this year, I chose my favorite red and blue nail polishes that could be used for a red,white,and blue manicure. I don't have all of my polishes with me currently, so there are probably others I could have included, but these are really my favorites - that's why they're with me, after all!

L-R: China Glaze - Red Pearl, Revlon - Frankly Scarlet, China Glaze - Poinsettia

L-R: China Glaze - Frostbite, OPI - Swimsuit...Nailed it!, China Glaze - Dorothy Who?,
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Pacific Blue

I didn't take a photo of it since I was sure you all have an idea of what a basic white cream nail polish looks like, but my favorite white is by far Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Whirlwind White. It goes on really opaquely in one or two coats, which makes it a lot nicer than sheerer or streakier whites, especially if you're using it as a base color and don't want to have a lot of drying time.

Of course, crackle or shatter polishes make really easy multi-colored manicures! I know there are red and blue ones available, I just don't have any of them. I do have white, though - and it's one of the polishes I used for my 4th of July themed manicure this year! I used China Glaze in Poinsettia for the red and Dorothy Who? for the blue glitter. The crackle polish I used was Sephora by OPI in White Blasted. I picked it up on clearance within the past few months. I also have the white crackle from China Glaze, which works too!

If you want to see another 4th of July themed manicure, the one I did last year is here! I used all China Glaze products - including the white crackle polish I mentioned.

Do you like doing themed manicures for holidays? I know I do - whether or not the holiday is something I really get into celebrating, it's hard to resist doing my nails for them!

Gumball/Confetti Dot Manicure

This is one of the most fun manicure's I've done in awhile, but it's also one of  the easiest I've ever done that isn't just a single color! It's so simple - just choose several colors of polish you like together, then get a dotting tool of some kind (or several if you want different sized dots). Choose one color at a time and randomly place dots on your nails, continuing with the other colors until the whole surface is covered with dots! By going with one color over all the nails at once, you can avoid having to wait for the dots to dry since they'll be almost completely dry by the time you start the next color. And there's no need for a base color if you choose polishes that aren't particularly sheer. Also, because only a little bit of each dot overlaps another, the polish doesn't get too thick and start chipping or peeling off quickly as can sometimes happen with thicker manicures. It's lasted several days on me with no chipping whatsoever - and of course it also says something that I've been willing to leave it on that long! I tend to switch manicures more often than this.

The polishes I chose to use this time, L-R:

Zoya - Pippa

China Glaze - Gaga for Green

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Blue Me Away!

Wet n Wild Megalast - On A Trip

Essie - Lights

Wet n Wild Megalast - Club Havana

I used the Seche Clear base coat and Seche Vite top coat for this manicure.

Edit: I just noticed this is my 200th post! It doesn't feel like I've done that many!

May Collab - House M.D.-Inspired Manicure

When I saw that it had been determined that May's theme for the Glamazon collaboration would be inspired by a TV show or character, I figured I'd try to do something from one of my all-time favorite shows - House! It's the only show I own on DVD, even though I got into it pretty late in the game, and I'm disappointed it was cancelled, although glad it ended while it was still a good show. (I haven't seen the last half of the season so don't spoil it for me!)

I pulled the colors and design ideas mostly just from the title sequence. In case you haven't seen it before, here is the version from the seventh season:

To start off, I put a base coat of the colors I chose from the title sequence.

L-R: China Glaze - Stone Cold, Zoya - Stella, Zoya - Minka, Revlon - Gold Coin, Zoya - Minka with Wet n Wild - Club Havana sponged lightly over it. I wanted to incorporate an orange, but it was too vibrant on its own. In order to achieve a more toned-down look, I brushed the polish onto a torn cosmetic sponge and applied it that way over the nude color.

For the designs, I used two polishes from Claire's that have both a striping brush and a pen-like applicator option. For the veins though, I used a Sephora by OPI nail design pen since it gave a less opaque effect that seemed more appropriate. 

Here's a more detailed look at the designs - with and without the additional letters.

This was such a fun manicure to do! While I do my nails very often, I don't do much in the way of nail art or themed manicures, so this was a fun way to try something I haven't done before.


Don't forget to check out the other participants' contributions as well!

Emily at Southern Gorgeous - Irene Adler makeup look
Keri at Beauty is My Crush - Sookie Stackhouse makeup look
Laurie Ann at BeautyMakeupAndMore - Nina Dobrev makeup look

Nail Polish Swatches

These are most, if not all, of the nail polishes I've added to my collection over the last two months. 

China Glaze - Stone Cold

Essie - Navigate Her

Essie - Tart Deco

Essie - Turquoise & Caicos 

Revlon - Posh 

Pixi - Paradise Pink 

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Pacific Blue 

Illamasqua - Nomad

Brash (Payless) - Turquoise Twist 

L-R: Revlon - Impulse, Revlon - Flirt, SXY (Payless) - Pink Prestige, Essie - Lights

L-R: Wet n Wild megalast - Tropicalia, Club Havana, Through the Grapevine, Pixi -  Coral Cabana